Conventional means of display sports memorabilia jerseys involve directly hanging the jersey on a wall, or mounting the jersey in a framed box which is then mounted to the wall.
One commercially available product, the ShirtWhiz™, as seen at www.shirtwhiz.com, is a specialized jersey hanger configurable into different shapes to support different jersey types (e.g. baseball, hockey, basketball). While solving the issue of a flexible product adaptable to display different jersey types, the product does not add to the visual aesthetic of the jersey itself.
General garment hangers incorporating facial imagery to augment the display of garments hung thereon are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,010,225, 4,563,373, 5,938,088, 6,182,871 and 6,629,014, none of which deal specifically with display of sports memorabilia jerseys.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,126,737 discloses a storage container having a three-dimensional torso-like shape to impart a three-dimensional character to a jersey placed over the exterior of the container, and including a suction cupped bracket for optional hanging of the container from a vertical surface. U.S. Patent Application Publication 20090250562 discloses a jersey hanger also designs to impart some three-dimensional character to the jersey placed thereon.
U.S. Patent Application Publication US20070278365 discloses a sports memorabilia hanger in the form of a free-standing upright having upper hanger arms and a lower pants hanger, but lacking any visual aesthetic to compliment the memorabilia hung thereon.
Despite these prior attempts to improve on conventional jersey display techniques, there remains room for improved jersey display solutions, in response to which Applicant has developed a unique display apparatus that not only supports the jersey itself, but adds further aesthetic value to the overall display thereof by incorporating a likeness of the professional athlete associated with the particular jersey being displayed.